EUROPE

The European Parliament's civil liberties committee LIBE voted on Wednesday in favor of collecting and storing information about all air passengers traveling into or out of the EU.

The so-called Passenger Name Record (PNR) scheme requires the storage of all data collected by airlines about passengers – including sensitive and personal information such as email addresses, credit card details, phone numbers, and meal choices (halal, kosher, etc) – for use by security agencies. The committee approved the scheme by 32 votes to 27, and also agreed to start negotiations with national ministers with a view to agreeing on a new law by the end of the year.

However, civil rights groups have been outraged at some of the proposals, particularly after the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled [PDF] the old Data Retention Directive illegal and disproportionate in April last year.

The controversial third bailout agreement that was negotiated and agreed to– by force, according to Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras– was passed in the Greek parliament following a tense debate and all-night vote. The deal includes tough reforms and unpopular measures that European creditors have imposed on the people of Greece.

Webmaster's Commentary:

There will be a run on pitchforks, kerosene, and hemp rope in the Greek hardware stores, I think.

There never was going to be any deal. All along, Germany has been seeking to establish conditions that would never be met so that they could force Greece out of the eurozone. But the Germans had to do this subtly so that they would end up looking “reasonable” and would not turn the rest of the eurozone against them. So why does Germany want to get rid of Greece? Well, to be honest, it is because the Germans are sick and tired of paying for Greek mistakes. In Germany, there is an obsession with having a balanced budget.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras scrambled to keep his party in line Tuesday ahead of a fateful parliamentary vote that will determine whether his country is able to apply for a massive international bailout or goes bankrupt.

Tsipras sought to contain a revolt by rank-and-file members of his left-wing Syriza party who vow to reject a deal he cut with European leaders to save Athens from a chaotic default and certain banishment from the group of 19 nations that use the euro currency.

An anti-austerity rally attended by thousands of protesters gathering outside of the Parliament in the Greek capital has spiraled into clashes with police, who are deploying pepper spray and tear gas against Molotov cocktails and rocks.

The crushing Greek debt could be canceled the way it was made – by sleight of hand. But saving the Greek people and their economy is evidently not in the game plan of the Eurocrats.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Because then every other member of the EU (and the US) would demand the same thing. The debt is imaginary in the first place. It is money that does not exist and never did. It is all make-believe and we refuse to believe the fairy tale any longer! That is why the money-junkies are so afraid right now.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been dealt a heavy blow after the publication by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of a damning report highly critical of the Greek bailout, which is likely to spell danger for her at home.

A new IMF report on Greece, issued on Tuesday, July 14th, is titled “AN UPDATE OF IMF STAFF’S PRELIMINARY PUBLIC DEBT SUSTAINABILITY ANALYSIS,” and it says — these are quotations, not paraphrases — in summary:

Greece’s public debt has become highly unsustainable. … The financing need through end-2018 is now estimated at Euro 85 billion. … Greece’s debt can now only be made sustainable through debt relief measures that go far beyond what Europe has been willing to consider so far. … Public debt cannot be assumed to migrate back onto the balance sheet of the private sector at interest rates consistent with debt sustainability until debt is much lower. Greece cannot return to markets anytime soon at interest rates that it can afford. … Medium-term primary surplus target: Greece is expected to maintain primary surpluses for the next several decades of 3.5 percent of GDP. Few countries have managed to do so. …

'Nuff said! Greece effectively strips Greece of its sovereignty on the way to seizing state assets and relegates its people to perpetual debt servitude. If this is the meaning of a currency "union", it’s not entirely clear why any state would want to be a part of it.

The misery of austerity suffered by the people will be prolonged, and will cascade onto future generations. Greece’s sovereignty and independence are being sacrificed for what? To remain in a system that puts its economy in a straightjacket with no escape route? It is now abundantly clear that Germany is demanding the total capitulation of Greece to act as a warning to the rest of the eurozone to toe the German line.

As a Wednesday deadline loomed for Greece to pass a package of harsh austerity measures in exchange for a fresh €86 billion bailout, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras met with furious members of his left-wing Syriza party behind closed doors on Tuesday, attempting to sell them on a deal that will undoubtedly cause further economic hardship in the debt-stricken nation

Economics is often referred to as the ‘dismal science’, and it’s certainly a name that’s well earned. To understand why, we could look to its relative failure to foresee the global financial crisis, but to go with a more contemporary example just look at the recent events in Greece. Time and time again we have been subjected to the same tired and fallacious arguments of the Troika, who tell us that the answer to Greece’s problems – massive debt and recession – is more debt and more austerity, which culminates in….? Yes, you guessed it, more debt and even deeper recession.

Those in power have simply convinced themselves that the people do not understand what is good for them so they must impose their will upon the people but raw force. How does this differ in any what from the justification of imposing communism? This is the death of all freedom and it is upon our doorstep.

Greece is saved? All over the planet, news headlines are boldly proclaiming that a “deal” has been reached which will give Greece the money that it needs and keep it in the eurozone. But as you will see below, this is not true at all. Yesterday, when I wrote that “there never was going to be any deal“, I was not exaggerating. This “deal” was not drafted with the intention of “saving Greece”. As I explained in my previous article, these negotiations were all about setting up Greece for eviction from the euro.

The rescued are not in the poorer Euro states – unlike commonly believed – but mainly in Germany and France. A large part of the money ends up with the creditors of the banks that want to be saved or must be saved.

Yes, Greek banks may have been insolvent - something that was clear since the first bailout of 2010 - but at least the Greek state had control over them: as such it could have mandated mergers, recapitalizations, liquidity injections, even depositor bail-ins (perhaps the harshest lesson for the ordinary Greek population as a result of this latest crisis is that deposits are not "cash in the bank" but liabilities of insolvent financial organizations).

To save its crumbling economy, Greece was forced to hand over its public assets to an external fund controlled by a German bank, managed by Herr Wolfgang Schaeuble himself.

Greece and its international creditors reached an agreement after long negotiations over the past weekend. The cash-strapped Mediterranean nation will now receive a €95-billion bailout over the next three years in exchange for quite harsh economic reforms.

However, the deal didn't come as easily for Greece. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble proposed that as much as €50-billion of Greek public assets must be transferred to an external fund and privatized over time.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Privitization means stealing assets paid for by taxpayers and renting those assets back to the people who paid for them.

Greek civil service workers have announced a 24-hour strike in the wake of today's bailout deal amid insider claims that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was 'crucified' during marathon overnight talks.

The union, Adedy, wants workers to protest the terms of the agreement Tsipras negotiated with Greece's creditors when their country's parliament votes on the measures needed to receive a crucial third bailout on Wednesday.

While striking a deal was considered vital to securing Greece's future within the euro and preventing the country's economy collapsing, Tsipras agreed to rush key measures on tax hikes, pension reforms, and a debt repayment fund through parliament.

An eurozone official was quoted by the Financial Times as saying: 'They crucified Tsipras in there. Crucified.'

Europeans, even those who give not a damn for Greece, ought to beware.The Euro Summit statement of yesterday morning has nothing to do with economics, nor with any concern for the type of reform agenda capable of lifting Greece out of its mire. It is purely and simply a manifestation of the politics of humiliation in action.

Logically, then, German politicians should be delighted with the outcome of the Brussels talks. Assuming that Greece's parliament passes the draconian measures the EU is demanding, Merkel ought to have no trouble getting the support of her Christian Democratic Union so that she can persuade the Bundestag to let her continue bailout talks.
Brüssel EU Regierungsgipfel zu Griechenland Merkel Tsipras Hollande

"I'm not so sure," says Olaf Boehnke, head of the Berlin office of the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank. "I was in the CDU parliamentary party in the Bundestag this morning, and it's an unbelievably emotional issue there."

For many in Merkel's conservative party, the thought of giving Greece any kind of bailout at all is complete anathema. "The people there are sick of it," Boehnke told DW. "The way that Tsipras has acted has annoyed a lot of people. A lot of the party are saying we are not going to play along."

Like the Neapolitan Bourbons – benign by comparison – the leaders of the eurozone have learned nothing, and forgotten nothing.

The cruel capitulation forced upon Greece after 31 hours on the diplomatic rack offers no conceivable way out the country’s perpetual crisis. The terms are harsher by a full order of magnitude than those rejected by Greek voters in a landslide referendum a week ago, and therefore can never command democratic assent.

They must be carried through by a Greek parliament still dominated by MPs from Left and Right who loathe every line of the summit statement, the infamous SN 4070/15, and have only agreed – if they have agreed – with a knife to their throats.

EMU inspectors can veto legislation. The emasculation of the Greek parliament has been slipped into the text. All that is missing is a unit of EMU gendarmes.

Alexis Tsipras may resign over concessions he made to Greece’s European lenders in Brussels on Monday.

"There is speculation this morning that PM Tsipras is considering a government resignation once these measures have been passed in parliament given the scale of failure in his strategy to get a better deal for Greece," said Derek Halpenny, a European head at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi.

This “deal” was not drafted with the intention of “saving Greece”. As I explained in my previous article, these negotiations were all about setting up Greece for eviction from the euro. You see, the truth is that Greece desperately wants to stay in the euro, but Germany (and allies such as Finland) want Greece out. Since Germany can’t simply order Greece to leave the euro, they need some sort of legal framework which will make it possible, and that is what this new “deal” provides. As I am about to explain, there are all kinds of conditions that must be satisfied and hurdles that must be crossed before Greece ever sees a single penny. If there is a single hiccup along the way, and this is what the Germans are counting on, Greece will be ejected from the eurozone. This “deal” has been designed to fail so that the Germans can get what they have wanted all along.

Greece’s union of civil servants, Adedly, called for a 24-hour strike on Wednesday, and for a series of demonstrations, the first one tonight at Syntagma Square, just below the Parliament, and another one on Wednesday evening, when Parliament is expected to vote on the new, even tougher, and immensely hated bailout package. The union for local government employees, Poe-Ota, also called for a 24-hour strike on Wednesday, the AFP reported. Two other demonstrations against austerity and the “euro” are planned for Monday night, one organized via social networks, the other by Antarsya, an anti-euro party that didn’t make it into Parliament.

Greek civil service workers have announced a 24-hour strike in the wake of today's bailout deal amid insider claims that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was 'crucified' during marathon overnight talks.

The union, Adedy, wants workers to protest the terms of the agreement Tsipras negotiated with Greece's creditors when their country's parliament votes on the measures needed to receive a crucial third bailout on Wednesday.

While striking a deal was considered vital to securing Greece's future within the euro and preventing the country's economy collapsing, Tsipras agreed to rush key measures on tax hikes, pension reforms, and a debt repayment fund through parliament.

An eurozone official was quoted by the Financial Times as saying: 'They crucified Tsipras in there. Crucified.'

Chancellor George Osborne will today attempt to fight off a European bid to force the British public to contribute almost £1billion towards any bailout of Greece.

Sources close to Jean-Claude Juncker, the arch-federalist European Commission president, say he wants the UK to release the funds as part of emergency loans to the country.

But this would break an agreement made by David Cameron in 2010 that Britain would not have to pay, because it is not a member of the eurozone. Commission officials say this deal was nothing more than a ‘political’ accord with no legal force.

You see, the truth is that Greece desperately wants to stay in the euro, but Germany (and allies such as Finland) want Greece out. Since Germany can’t simply order Greece to leave the euro, they need some sort of legal framework which will make it possible, and that is what this new “deal” provides.

Varoufakis said that Schäuble, Germany’s finance minister and the architect of the deals Greece signed in 2010 and 2012, was “consistent throughout”. “His view was ‘I’m not discussing the programme – this was accepted by the previous [Greek] government and we can’t possibly allow an election to change anything.

“So at that point I said ‘Well perhaps we should simply not hold elections anymore for indebted countries’, and there was no answer. The only interpretation I can give [of their view] is, ‘Yes, that would be a good idea, but it would be difficult. So you either sign on the dotted line or you are out.’”

After 31 hours of tense weekend talks—and five years of crippling austerity—Greece and its foreign creditors have struck a deal: an €86 billion bailout that will keep Greece in the Eurozone in exchange for controversial economic reforms that include tax hikes, pension overhauls, and severe budget cuts if the nation misses fiscal targets imposed and monitored by the so-called Troika.

One of the preconditions imposed on Greece for a deal is that it signs into law European rules that would put euro zone authorities at the ECB and in Brussels, rather than Athens, in charge of identifying and closing or breaking up sick banks. This in turn could lead to a shake-up of the sector that could see some banks close, with losses pushed onto bondholders and possibly even large depositors. In such circumstances, there would be little that Athens could do to prevent this.

Spain has shown that it is fully on board with the Brussels authoritarian direction of ending democracy. Those in power have simply convinced themselves that the people do not understand what is good for them so they must impose their will upon the people but raw force. How does this differ in any what from the justification of imposing communism? This is the death of all freedom and it is upon our doorstep.

With the provocative and dramatic Greek "time out" language pulled from the final finmin and summit draft language, the two most humiliating aspects of the latest extend and pretend "deal" for the Greek people will be the return of the Troika's (surely we can call it the Troika again as part of the Greek capitulation) IMF mission to Athens, and the escrowing of some €50 billion in Greek assets in a liquidation fund.

Granted said fund will not be domiciled in Luxembourg as was originally envisioned, but Europe will still have control and first refusal rights over what are technically Greek properties, in the process Athens handing over about 25% of Greek GDP (and sovereignty) over the Brussels.

Euro zone leaders made Greece surrender much of its sovereignty to outside supervision on Monday in return for agreeing to talks on an 86 billion euros bailout to keep the near-bankrupt country in the single currency.

The terms imposed by international lenders led by Germany in all-night talks at an emergency summit obliged leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to abandon promises of ending austerity and could fracture his government and cause an outcry in Greece.

"Clearly the Europe of austerity has won," Greece's Reform Minister George Katrougalos said.

Webmaster's Commentary:

I expect rioting in Greece as the people realize Tsipras has broken his promises. My sympathies are with the Greek people!

An historic betrayal has consumed Greece. Having set aside the mandate of the Greek electorate, the Syriza government has willfully ignored last week’s landslide “No” vote and secretly agreed a raft of repressive, impoverishing measures in return for a “bailout” that means sinister foreign control and a warning to the world.

With Greece tottering on the brink of leaving the Eurozone, experts of all stripes have been debating Grexit's security implications, including Athens' relationship with NATO. While naysayers argue that the geopolitics behind Grexit "are actually pretty boring," others warn that the implications for the bloc could be far more serious.

Romanian prosecutors indicted Prime Minister Victor Ponta on Monday as part of a wide-ranging corruption investigation and seized his assets, putting further pressure on him to resign.

Prosecutors said Ponta has been indicted on charges including tax evasion, money laundering, conflict of interest and making false statements while he was working as a lawyer in 2007 and 2008. At the time, Ponta was a lawmaker. He denies wrongdoing.

Prosecutors also said in a statement Monday that they temporarily froze Ponta's personal assets which include shares in a house, an apartment and several bank accounts. He sold two apartments in May for 150,000 euros ($170,000) and also sold a car.

Ponta, who took office in 2012, is the first sitting Romania prime minister to be indicted and have his assets seized.

Yes, it’s still entirely possible that Tsipras submitted this last set of proposals knowing full well they won’t be accepted. But he’s already gone way too far in his concessions. This is an exercise in futility.

It’s time to acknowledge this is a road to nowhere. From where I’m sitting, Yanis Varoufakis has been the sole sane voice in this whole 5 month long B-movie. I think Yanis also conceded that it was no use trying to negotiate anything with the troika, and that that’s to a large extent why he left.

Yanis will be badly, badly needed for Greece going forward. They need someone to figure out where to go from here.

Just like Europe needs someone to figure out how to deconstruct Brussels without the use of heavy explosives. Because there are just two options here: either the EU will -more or less- peacefully fall apart, or it will violently blow apart.

Five hardliners in Greece's ruling SYRIZA party said on Friday dropping out of the eurozone and a return to the drachma was preferable to a deal with international creditors laced with austerity and without any provision for debt relief.

“The government even at this hour can and should respond to the institutions' blackmail with the dilemma: either a programme without new austerity, with funding and a debt write-off or an exit fron the euro and suspension of payments of the unjust and non viable debt,” the statement signed by five members of the party said. Three of them are lawmakers and two members of SYRIZA's political committee.

Progressive social movements have long expressed support for ‘another Europe’. Their almost unanimous support for the Greek referendum’s ‘no’ vote against the Troika proposal for further austerity policies speaks volumes about the frustration of building a Europe from below.

The latest reform package was strikingly similar to the terms Greeks rejected in a referendum just last Sunday, angering members of the Syriza's hardline Left Platform wing. Five of them signed a letter saying it would be better to return to the drachma, Greece's pre-euro currency, than to swallow more austerity with no debt write-off.

NATO will open the first Baltic regional headquarters for its new rapid reaction force in Lithuania in the coming months, amid growing concerns over Russian aggression in Ukraine.
Lithuanian Defence Minister Juozas Olekas says this will increase quick communication between national and alliance troops in the region. The base will be staffed by 40 people.
The head of the unit, Danish Col. J.S. Larsen, said Thursday the headquarters could co-ordinate operations of a division-sized unit "in case there is a need."

Webmaster's Commentary:

More "Picador"-like behaviour on the part of NATO against Ruassia.

Folks, Russia has done absolutely nothing wrong. Ukraine was hit by a "putsch" last year, so that Poroshenko could be installed, as he was more "Western/NATO-centric" than his predecessor.

Following the putsch, Crimea, which had historically been Russian until Kruschiev annexed it to Ukraine in the 50s, requested to return to the Russian Federation. In a clear and fair referendum, watched by vetted international observers, the Crimeans voted to rejoin Russia. Russia accepted.

How in heaven's name can this be construed as "Russian aggression", when the aggressors were NATO, the US, and the IMF?!?!?

The proposal doe not include the signatures of the Ministers of Productive Reconstruction Panagiotis Lafazanis and the Minister of National Defense Panos Kammenos. Mr. Lafazanis, who is the head of SYRIZA’s Left Platform, has expressed his opposition to the terms of the agreement.

Germany is at last bowing to pressure as a chorus of countries and key institutions demand debt relief for Greece, a shift that could break the five-month stalemate and avert a potentially disastrous rupture of monetary union at this Sunday’s last-ditch summit.

In a highly significant move, the European Council has called on both sides to make major concessions, insisting that the creditor powers must do their part as the radical Syriza government puts forward a new raft of proposals on economic reforms before a deadline expires tonight.

Yes, it’s still entirely possible that Tsipras submitted this last set of proposals knowing full well they won’t be accepted. But he’s already gone way too far in his concessions. This is an exercise in futility.

It’s time to acknowledge this is a road to nowhere. From where I’m sitting, Yanis Varoufakis has been the sole sane voice in this whole 5 month long B-movie. I think Yanis also conceded that it was no use trying to negotiate anything with the troika, and that that’s to a large extent why he left.

Yanis will be badly, badly needed for Greece going forward. They need someone to figure out where to go from here.

Just like Europe needs someone to figure out how to deconstruct Brussels without the use of heavy explosives. Because there are just two options here: either the EU will -more or less- peacefully fall apart, or it will violently blow apart.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras sought his left-wing party's backing on Friday for a new budget austerity package that is harsher than what he urged Greeks to reject in a vote just last week, but would provide the country will longer-term financial support.

Government ministers signed off on the sweeping new measures, which include pension cuts and tax increases that are likely to inflict further pain on a people that have just emerged from a six-year economic depression.

If approved, Greece would in return get a three-year package of loans worth nearly $60 billion as well as some form of debt relief. The package would be far larger than the 7.2 billion euros creditors had been offering to Greece during the previous five months of fruitless negotiations.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Tsipras has sold out his fellow and sister Greeks with this move.

It looks as though he named his price to the IMF, and they bought him, or they had something blackmaiable on him.

Either way, if this offer is accepted by Greece's creditors, there may well be rioting in the streets, possibly followed by a full-on civil war.

Greece’s Syriza-led government agreed to a massive new €13 billion (US$14.34 billion) package of austerity measures yesterday evening, less than a week after Sunday’s landslide “no” vote in a referendum on European Union (EU) austerity.

For most people in the western world, this is their first exposure to this kind of an economic situation. However, this is not new at all. The exact playbook has been used for many decades to take over countries around the world. Two good books to read about austerity, neoliberalism and corporatocracy are “Confessions of an Economic Hitman” by John Perkins and “Shock Doctrine” by Naomi Klein.

The European Commission should have adjusted the economic activity of Greece before the crisis, Russian President Putin has said, adding that the EU shouldn’t have issued such high bonuses and loans to the debt ridden country.

“Of course, all the blame can be shifted to the Greeks. But if there were violations in their [Greece] activity, where was the European Commission? Why didn’t it make any adjustments to the economic activity of the previous government of Greece?” Putin asked talking at the Q&A session with journalists on the final day of BRICS/SCO summits in Ufa.

After submitting a proposal for consideration by foreign creditors overnight, the Greek government of Alexis Tsipras on Friday presented the plan to a full meeting of Parliament, in hopes of securing backing for a plan that would keep Greece in the eurozone by exchanging long-term debt relief and further financial assistance for a new set of of harsh austerity programs and conditions.

The July 5 referendum in Greece provides the clearest and most inspiring evidence to date, but the message it conveyed has been clear for a long time: that people hate the banksters who impose austerity upon them, and that they hate austerity even more.

What could be more understandable? Most people are working more (or no less) for less (or no more) — not for the age old reason, that there is not enough to go around, but because of the machinations of banksters, and the politicians and bureaucrats who serve their interests and the interests of their class brothers and sisters.

For some time now social movements have expressed their support for Another Europe. Their almost unanimous support for a “NO” vote in the Greek referendum on the proposals of the Troika, says much about the repeatedly frustrated hopes of constructing a social Europe from below.

Indeed, the protests against austerity have established, ever more clearly and explicitly, that the evolution of Europe is going in the opposite direction: a Europe increasingly of (financial) markets, and more and more, a Europe in which non-democratic institutions make use of blackmail and fear to impose unpopular decisions. This diagnosis of the responsibility of the EU converges with the results of much recent research that indicates how the financial crisis has transformed into a democratic crisis of the legitimacy of EU institutions.

Businesses and Banks within Greece have already been told to immediately commence a currency switch to the soon-to-be-re-issued Greek Drachma and, accidentally, some merchants have already begun invoicing customers in the new Drachma currency! This Invoicing in Drachmas has been CONFIRMED by Bloomberg Business News and their coverage can be seen HERE:

Greece has already collapsed, and the only real question is whether the ECB will give Greek depositors time to withdraw some of the €120 billion in deposits it holds hostage with the frozen ELA, or if the ECB will admit the truth about the Greek insolvent banking system risking Eurozone contagion. A better question is just what is the purpose of the IMF whose intervention in Greece can be described in one word: disaster. It can also be described in eleven, as the creator of the Taylor Rule, John Taylor, has done in a blog post which can be summarized as follows: IMF Loans To Greece Bailed Out Banks And Worsened The Situation.

Stock markets have raced ahead across Europe amid renewed hopes that a deal can be reached to save Greece from crashing out of the eurozone.

The Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, has submitted proposals for a harsh new round of austerity measures totalling €13bn (£9.35bn) in an attempt to break the deadlock over its bailout and is now seeking the backing of parliament in Athens.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Tsipras has just broken his campaign promises to the Greek people. If the deal goes through, there could be riots and even civil war in Greece.

The renowned German "efficiency" is opening up a grievous rift within the European Union in the wake of the Greek No vote to EU-imposed bailout austerity. Not only that. The famed Germanic mechanical methodology is threatening to tear Europe asunder from runaway financial debts – the very Europe that Berlin claims to be upholding.

Banks create money when they make loans. Greece could restore the liquidity desperately needed by its banks and its economy by nationalizing the banks and issuing digital loans backed by government guarantees to its ailing businesses. Greece could provide an inspiring model of sustainable prosperity for the world. But it is being strangled by a hegemonic power in a financial war that is being waged against us all.

WEBMASTER ADDITION: Here comes the US coup to kick Tsipras out and put in a pro-US pro-banker junta. This will trigger another bloody civil war like Ukraine. But no price is too great to pay to keep the money-junkies happy!

Almost a year ago, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine killing 298 people. Yet, instead of a transparent investigation seeking justice, the case became a propaganda game of finger-pointing, with the CIA withholding key evidence all the better to blame Russia.

The Dutch investigation into the shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine last July has failed to uncover conclusive proof of precisely who was responsible for the deaths of the 298 passengers and crew but is expected to point suspicions toward the ethnic Russian rebels, fitting with the West’s long-running anti-Russian propaganda campaign.

With the situation rapidly deteriorating in Greece, many experts have predicted that Greece may be forced from the Euro. If that happens, then Greece will have to go through the lengthy and complicated process of creating a new currency, which would most likely carry the namesake of their pre-Euro currency, known as the “Drachma.” For now the Euro is still their official currency, but it seems that hasn’t stopped some financial institutions from jumping the gun.

A reporter for Bloomberg stayed at a hotel in Athens from June 28th to July 4th, but when they charged his Visa debit card, the online statement didn’t show his charge in Euros. Instead, it was recorded as “Drachma EQ.”